Edmund and the soldiers were in a field outside the city. It was an open space between the city and the farms. Edmund planned to put into practice what he had taught in class the days before.

  ‘Alright, like I explained, you need people to carry the ammunition in those boxes, so some soldiers will just carry those things, which should not be moving around much.’ Edmund pointed at the boxes right next to him.

  Alon was looking around, thinking of a way of implementing those things, but he needed a test to be sure it could be done and placed into his company structure.

  'Look, someone will do the calculations and give the orders; another will put it in position and adjust the mortar; after confirming everything is alright, it comes the real action; another will just get this and put it in the weapon.’ Edmund took a projectile from the ammunition box.

  After showing it to everyone, it had a pointed shape with a strange format at the bottom. The soldiers were intrigued by the format. He placed it at the point of the cylinder-shaped weapon and looked at everyone five feet behind him before letting go of the projectile, and right after, everyone that was seen was taken aback by the loud noise the weapon produced.

  ‘That was loud. After this, you look over there and see the result. I adjusted so that could be the closest possible.’ He smiled.

  The moment he pointed to the front, all of them saw an explosion in the distance and later the sound of them. Alon was impressed by how far it landed; it made him think that this was the right thing needed in the Duchy army.

  ‘That was cool, but now someone needs to ensure it is still in position and do it again. Let’s do it like it was for real. You can use one of these with two people, but using three is optimal. Now come here, you three.’ Edmund pointed at Bartel, Egor, and Ethan.

  Bartel positioned himself in the adjusting position, and Ethan, on the other side of the weapon, would drop the ammunition on it. Egor was behind the weapon but at arm's length, close to Ethan's arm and the ammunition box, as Edmund instructed them to be.

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  'Alon, this is an example; you can change it using your military stuff, okay? You can give the order.’ Edmund looked at Alon and nodded at him.

  'Bartel, you will give the order to fire if the position is fine; the rest follow his command; begin!!!’ Alon looked at Bartel with a serious expression.

  Bartel looked at the position and shouted the command that prompted Ethan, who already had one projectile in his hand, to put it in place and let it go. The noise came, and Bartel checked again. Egor gave another round of ammunition to Ethan, who again dropped the projectile on the weapon as soon as he heard Bartel’s command.

  This happened ?four times. Alon pulled out his spyglass as the explosions rang out in the distance. He was surprised at its accuracy; the explosions were not falling in the same spot, but the area was small.

  ‘Good job, everyone, especially for you, Edmund; this weapon will help destroy the fortresses.' Alon smiled while looking at the distance.

  After this, they started the practical training with everyone. Alon decided that his company would have a platoon of mortars composed of three weapons with a crew of seven each because of the amount of ammunition they needed.

  Things would need to switch around, but he was happy to test before showing the results to Ariadne. Everyone was impressed; now they see why they needed all the hours in the classroom before coming here.

  ‘Before you ask Alon, I built just this one, and those boxes here are all we have as of now, so there are more than twenty shots. After the real testing, you can ask the duchess for more, and it will be produced like everything we use now.’ Edmund held his chin.

  ‘Ok, put everything on the truck, and let’s go back; we must prepare to depart tomorrow.’ Alon turned around and walked to the truck.

  Some days passed. Outside of a town on the east side of the duchy, close to the velvet frontier, Alon was holding an object similar to a radio but connected to a box next to him. Right next to him, all two hundred soldiers of his company were waiting in line for their orders.

  ‘We will attack the fortress in the forest to the east of us. We have information bigger than the one Bartel and his man almost lost their lives to destroy. Now, we are prepared for what is to come.’ He paused and looked around.

  Most soldiers were nervous because it was their first real large-scale battle. Before, it was just cleaning up duty. Most of the time, the monsters didn’t even know they were there, but one thing made them feel more reassured: that Eliza was right next to Alon.

  ‘Eliza will assist us with her healing, but don’t let that be a reason not to take this seriously; she can’t revive the dead. I hope every platoon leader reads the instructions I gave based on Bartel's recommendations.’ He looked to the platoon leaders that were to the front as they nodded.

  Eliza felt nervous, even though she had experienced it because of the last incident; that didn’t make her feel secure about her abilities. One thing that made her stop thinking about it was Edmund looking around and kicking dirt like he didn’t care at all to be there. She used her elbow to poke his arm and shook her head in a blatant demonstration of disappointment.

  The young white-haired man gave her a broad smile and straightened himself up, but his feet still moved slightly. All Eliza could do was sigh in frustration.